Friday News And Views

Bontrager's new "WaveCell" technology claims it is a dramatically safer helmet.

Over-Hyped Or Deserved Accolades?

A couple weeks ago Trek rolled out a mysterious social media campaign claiming that it was about to unleash a new technology that was going to be the best thing in 30 years in its category. Immediately the media pundits, keyboard jockeys, and forum crazies were yakking about what it might be. Things from wildly unreasonable fantasies to more down to earth ideas like a new carbon fiber frame technology, or more American manufacturing were thought up.

Then I saw about a week ago what it really was. Boy! Were most people waaaaay off! My reaction was a laugh, because I knew that when the word came out that many people were going to slag Trek for over-hyping a helmet, while others were just going to groan and turn their heads. I figured it would definitely be one of the most talked about marketing ploys in many a year. I wasn't wrong.

To their credit, Trek social media folks were on point the day of the launch and for the following days. They watched for every positive reaction and regurgitated it on their feeds so as to minimize the collective groans and comments of disappointment from the innergoogles. Talk about stamping out fires! They may have a bigger fire to stamp out now though.

We actually got one in at the shop where I work and I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed. First of all, (and referring to my comments about big-headed cyclists earlier this week), the size Large WaveCell roadie helmet hit my head like a medium sized helmet. No way could I use that! Others tried it on and said it was really a rounder shaped helmet and it seemed pretty wide. Hrrumph! Not that I'd get one anyway. I am not a believer in that design as far as keeping your head cool. It looks like a recipe for a sweaty, hot lid. Time will tell if that proves right. I guess in the meantime I'll just be 40 something percent more likely to have a concussion. Thanks Bontrager!

Teravail Rutland variants.

Teravail Introduces New Gravel Tire: 

The Quality Bicycles tire brand, Teravail, has announced a new tire, the Rutland, in three sizes. The Rutland will come in 700 X 38, 700 X 42, and 650B X 47mm. All are tubeless ready, and both "Light and Supple" and "Durable" casings will be offered. There are skinwall options as well.

Whoo! Another "gravel" tire. The marketplace is pretty crowded now. Amazing to think this when ten years ago there weren't any "gravel specific" tires except the Bruce Gordon "Rock & Road" (which is still available, by the way) I am grateful for all of the choices. That said, I feel that this one is highly derivative.

To my eyes, the Rutland looks a lot like a WTB Resolute with a touch of Riddler thrown in for good measure. Those are fine gravel tires to mimic if you are going to mimic a tire, I guess. It will be interesting to see if they ride as well as the WTB offerings do. I would guess that the Light and Supple variant will be the one that rides the best. By the way, that's the only casing offered in skin wall.

Interestingly, I've noted many tire brands are now recommending inner rim widths in either a range, or a specific dimension, for their tires. The Rutland is best on a 23mm inner width rim, apparently. That's a "wide" rim in terms of what was the norm only a few years ago. In fact, I am testing wheels which are narrower than that and the marketing copy reads as thought these narrower widths are "wider for gravel tires". To be sure, it wasn't all that long ago that a Salsa Delgado rim was considered a "wide" rim and that looks narrow by today's standards. Ten years ago most "road" rims were sub-20mm inner rim width. Things sure have changed.

The Women's Single Speed Champ jersey.

C.O.G.100 Jerseys Are In:

The championship jerseys for the inaugural C.O.G. 100 Iowa Single Speed Gravel Championships are in! They look fantastic too. The Bike Rags company knocked it outta the park with these jerseys and N.Y. Roll and I are stoked about the quality job that Bike Rags provided. The jerseys have a soft, in the hand feel, are full zip, and the colors pop really well. (My image here notwithstanding) The design was rendered just as I wanted it and I am happy that everyone I have shown these to has had nothing but positive reactions to them.

The Men's jersey is pink, the Women's is powder blue. The "C.O.G. 100" pre-order jerseys are lavender and will not say "Iowa SS Champ" on them, but will say "Iowa C.O.G. 100" instead. Those are not quite here yet, but they are promised by the event. If that doesn't happen I will ship jerseys to all the pre-order folks on the list, whether you chose that option during your payment or not. Hopefully they show up.....

In other C.O.G. 100 news, I have the number plates ready, and cues will be stuffed into baggies this weekend. I have to make a check in sheet and a roster sheet and then we are good to roll. Remember, N.Y. Roll and I will be hanging out at the Peace Tree Grinnell taproom from 6:00pm -10:00pm next Friday. If you are in the event, you can come down and get waivers signed, and pick up your schwag if you'd like. Cues will not be distributed until the morning of the event. Right now it looks like the weather will be cool, but clear and with no chances for rain.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and get some riding in!

Friday News And Views

Bontrager's new "WaveCell" technology claims it is a dramatically safer helmet.

Over-Hyped Or Deserved Accolades?

A couple weeks ago Trek rolled out a mysterious social media campaign claiming that it was about to unleash a new technology that was going to be the best thing in 30 years in its category. Immediately the media pundits, keyboard jockeys, and forum crazies were yakking about what it might be. Things from wildly unreasonable fantasies to more down to earth ideas like a new carbon fiber frame technology, or more American manufacturing were thought up.

Then I saw about a week ago what it really was. Boy! Were most people waaaaay off! My reaction was a laugh, because I knew that when the word came out that many people were going to slag Trek for over-hyping a helmet, while others were just going to groan and turn their heads. I figured it would definitely be one of the most talked about marketing ploys in many a year. I wasn't wrong.

To their credit, Trek social media folks were on point the day of the launch and for the following days. They watched for every positive reaction and regurgitated it on their feeds so as to minimize the collective groans and comments of disappointment from the innergoogles. Talk about stamping out fires! They may have a bigger fire to stamp out now though.

We actually got one in at the shop where I work and I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed. First of all, (and referring to my comments about big-headed cyclists earlier this week), the size Large WaveCell roadie helmet hit my head like a medium sized helmet. No way could I use that! Others tried it on and said it was really a rounder shaped helmet and it seemed pretty wide. Hrrumph! Not that I'd get one anyway. I am not a believer in that design as far as keeping your head cool. It looks like a recipe for a sweaty, hot lid. Time will tell if that proves right. I guess in the meantime I'll just be 40 something percent more likely to have a concussion. Thanks Bontrager!

Teravail Rutland variants.

Teravail Introduces New Gravel Tire: 

The Quality Bicycles tire brand, Teravail, has announced a new tire, the Rutland, in three sizes. The Rutland will come in 700 X 38, 700 X 42, and 650B X 47mm. All are tubeless ready, and both "Light and Supple" and "Durable" casings will be offered. There are skinwall options as well.

Whoo! Another "gravel" tire. The marketplace is pretty crowded now. Amazing to think this when ten years ago there weren't any "gravel specific" tires except the Bruce Gordon "Rock & Road" (which is still available, by the way) I am grateful for all of the choices. That said, I feel that this one is highly derivative.

To my eyes, the Rutland looks a lot like a WTB Resolute with a touch of Riddler thrown in for good measure. Those are fine gravel tires to mimic if you are going to mimic a tire, I guess. It will be interesting to see if they ride as well as the WTB offerings do. I would guess that the Light and Supple variant will be the one that rides the best. By the way, that's the only casing offered in skin wall.

Interestingly, I've noted many tire brands are now recommending inner rim widths in either a range, or a specific dimension, for their tires. The Rutland is best on a 23mm inner width rim, apparently. That's a "wide" rim in terms of what was the norm only a few years ago. In fact, I am testing wheels which are narrower than that and the marketing copy reads as thought these narrower widths are "wider for gravel tires". To be sure, it wasn't all that long ago that a Salsa Delgado rim was considered a "wide" rim and that looks narrow by today's standards. Ten years ago most "road" rims were sub-20mm inner rim width. Things sure have changed.

The Women's Single Speed Champ jersey.

C.O.G.100 Jerseys Are In:

The championship jerseys for the inaugural C.O.G. 100 Iowa Single Speed Gravel Championships are in! They look fantastic too. The Bike Rags company knocked it outta the park with these jerseys and N.Y. Roll and I are stoked about the quality job that Bike Rags provided. The jerseys have a soft, in the hand feel, are full zip, and the colors pop really well. (My image here notwithstanding) The design was rendered just as I wanted it and I am happy that everyone I have shown these to has had nothing but positive reactions to them.

The Men's jersey is pink, the Women's is powder blue. The "C.O.G. 100" pre-order jerseys are lavender and will not say "Iowa SS Champ" on them, but will say "Iowa C.O.G. 100" instead. Those are not quite here yet, but they are promised by the event. If that doesn't happen I will ship jerseys to all the pre-order folks on the list, whether you chose that option during your payment or not. Hopefully they show up.....

In other C.O.G. 100 news, I have the number plates ready, and cues will be stuffed into baggies this weekend. I have to make a check in sheet and a roster sheet and then we are good to roll. Remember, N.Y. Roll and I will be hanging out at the Peace Tree Grinnell taproom from 6:00pm -10:00pm next Friday. If you are in the event, you can come down and get waivers signed, and pick up your schwag if you'd like. Cues will not be distributed until the morning of the event. Right now it looks like the weather will be cool, but clear and with no chances for rain.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and get some riding in!

pMCD Update: The Build And First Ride Report

Wolf Tooth head sets are the bomb!

The Build:

I started building up the pMCD frame Wednesday night but a text message that evening kind of made me put the brakes on the build till Friday. It was okay, since the turn in plans eventually was something that was better than I was going to do in the first place.

When I build a bicycle up from a frame and fork, the very first order of business is to get the head set in. Now you may want to do it a different way, but to my way of thinking, a frame is a bad unicycle until the fork is on it!

So, I installed the purple Wolf Tooth head set first and then came the conundrum of where to cut the steer tube. I did not measure the stock steer tube length, but it is looooong! I decided to go with 11 1/2" length and cut it there, because I didn't want to leave myself short with no option to have a healthy amount of exposed steer tube. However, Mike Varley of Black Mountain Cycles had designed the frame to have an extended head tube so that steer tube spacer use would be at a minimum. So, with that unknown hanging out there, I measured bikes I already have here and approximated as best I could, with an eye towards leaving too much steer tube rather than cutting it close.

I'm glad that I did, because it came out that I had too much steer tube, but not a ridiculous amount. For the record, I think I cut off about three inches! I know I could go lower, but I'll try riding it with different arrangements of the stem and spacers until I arrive at what I like. Then there will be a final cut and that will be that.

Wheels Manufacturing angular contact bearing bottom bracket here. Made in the USA!

After a head set gets installed and a fork is mounted, the next task I go after is to get the bottom bracket in there. You can scooter if you'd like, but a bicycle is pretty worthless without a crank set and pedals.

Mike Varley preps every frame before it leaves his Black Mountain Cycles shop to you, so the threading on the bottom bracket was super smooth and allowed easy installation of my Wheels Manufacturing angular contact bearing bottom bracket. Then I slotted in my Shimano CX series 46T/36T crank set for 11spd.

Now normally at this point I'd set up a stem and handle bar, and then work on mounting controls. However; part of the text mentioned above made me decide not to go that way. Instead, I mounted my Spyre brakes and tested them with the Irwin Cycling Aon GX 35  carbon wheels I already had waiting on this build. I ended up having to spacer out the rear caliper a bit, but otherwise I had zero issues getting things to line up.

I tried running a few cable housings just to get a feel for how I would route things. The cable routing is really well thought out on this bike. Everything going to the rear of the bike is full run housing. The front brake, obviously being a disc, is as well. Only the front derailleur is a bottom run, exposed cable set up. That may seem weird, but here is why that is actually brilliant. The break in the housing run from the shifter goes to a traditionally mounted road bike style cable stop with a barrel adjuster. This means no oddball in-line cable adjuster is necessary and the front derailleur can be easily adjusted on the fly. Those worried about mud fouling the cable have too much time to think about things. In all my years of riding, that style of cable run has never been the reason my front derailleur did not work. Your mileage may vary......

The finished product. (Well......almost finished!)

Friday I received a set of Whisky No. 9 Carbon 24F handle bars. In that package was also a No. 7 Carbon seat post. Friday evening I spent down in the Lab putting it all together. There were some old parts from my Raleigh Tamland Two. The Ultegra levers, front and rear derailleurs, and the aforementioned calipers for the brakes. I got a new SRAM 11-36T 11 speed cassette and I used a Shimano 11 speed chain, the new Ultegra one with the quick link. (Yay!) The stem was my Redshift Sports ShockStop stem in the 90mm length. The saddle is my Brooks Cambium from the old T-6 I sold.

Tires are an old set of WTB Riddler 45mm tires that barely went on. Those Irwin rims fit tires tightly! I won't be worrying about throwing off a tire if one goes flat, and burping a tire seems very unlikely. I used an old beat up set of Shimano SPD's and added three purple Velocity Bottle Traps. I got three pink ones, but the purple looked better to my eyes.

Then it was nearly time to ride after I set up my tires tubeless with "MG's Special Sauce", (a home brew recipe- you cannot buy it from the bike shop!), and that was successful due to one product. That would be Uncle Dick's Bead Slip. No issues with getting the tires straight and even using Uncle Dick's. Note- I'm not sure where you get this stuff anymore, but if I find out I'll let ya know.

Whiskey No. 7 Carbon post

The Whisky components look great on the bike. I like the "ghost" branding and the sheen of the black is cool. The only issue with that post is that it uses a thumb wheel up under the saddle as one of the securing fasteners. It is easier to use than some I've encountered, so at least there wasn't any swearing.

The handle bar is much the same as far as looks. The shape is very similar to a Cowchipper, but different...... It's hard to describe. The flare is 24° but the reach seems less and the drop seems less. Not by much either. And this bar features flat sections to accommodate cable runs and a little wider 31.8mm center clamp section that makes mounting accessories easier.

The bar was covered in the Marque handle bar tape salvaged from the T-6 when I sold it. Then I capped off the Whiskey Components bar's ends with pink bar end caps. It all is good with the pink frame and helps tie the look together since the parts look more like an ensemble instead of a hodge podge.

There she be!

The Ride:

The Black Mountain Cycles rig is fun to ride for sure. Smooth? Oh yeah! But that may be because of the ShockStop stem and the Whiskey No. 7 post. That post has a sweet ride to it. Plus the Whisky No. 9 24F carbon bar also has a bit of give at the extensions so that when you are in the drops it feels smoother yet. Add in 45mm Riddler tires and it gets smooth fast. But that said, the frame is pretty nice in this regard. While the disc factor caused the fork to be stiffer than my rim brake BMC, it still can be seen working over the rough stuff on gravel. It isn't the "immovable object" that many carbon fiber forks are.

I stuck the bars at a height that was neither the highest I could go, nor the lowest. I'm close, but I'll be swapping around stem spacers till I get it figured out. But otherwise the position I was able to get is spot on. Not too much seat post is extended, and I don't have to get a crazy different length stem. In fact, I may go a touch longer depending upon where I end up at with bar height.

Something struck me as I was riding it. That was that I was feeling similar feelings to something I'd ridden in the past. The steel frame of the MCD felt somehow familiar. Then it hit me. The Vaya! I used to love that bike for its crazy ability to give back what you put into it, eventually. Kind of like winding up a spring and then it recoils. Anyway, the MCD felt like that, like the Vaya used to.

So, is it the uber-Vaya? Maybe. It just reminds me of that old bike. Only the Black Mountain Cycles bike has more features. More tire clearance, through axles, livelier tubing choices, a better steel fork, and smarter details. So, it is a different beast altogether.

I'll be doing some tweaking in the near future beyond the stem position. I may be switching bar tape, tweaking out the saddle position, and stuff like that. I'll also be doing a switch on the wheels to try 650B X 47mm tires. That said,  yes- I am happy. I like it, and I don't think this one will be going anywhere unless I am riding it in the near future.

Don't ask what it weighs, because I won't tell you. That isn't the point of this bike, but if you have other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

pMCD Update: The Build And First Ride Report

Wolf Tooth head sets are the bomb!

The Build:

I started building up the pMCD frame Wednesday night but a text message that evening kind of made me put the brakes on the build till Friday. It was okay, since the turn in plans eventually was something that was better than I was going to do in the first place.

When I build a bicycle up from a frame and fork, the very first order of business is to get the head set in. Now you may want to do it a different way, but to my way of thinking, a frame is a bad unicycle until the fork is on it!

So, I installed the purple Wolf Tooth head set first and then came the conundrum of where to cut the steer tube. I did not measure the stock steer tube length, but it is looooong! I decided to go with 11 1/2" length and cut it there, because I didn't want to leave myself short with no option to have a healthy amount of exposed steer tube. However, Mike Varley of Black Mountain Cycles had designed the frame to have an extended head tube so that steer tube spacer use would be at a minimum. So, with that unknown hanging out there, I measured bikes I already have here and approximated as best I could, with an eye towards leaving too much steer tube rather than cutting it close.

I'm glad that I did, because it came out that I had too much steer tube, but not a ridiculous amount. For the record, I think I cut off about three inches! I know I could go lower, but I'll try riding it with different arrangements of the stem and spacers until I arrive at what I like. Then there will be a final cut and that will be that.

Wheels Manufacturing angular contact bearing bottom bracket here. Made in the USA!

After a head set gets installed and a fork is mounted, the next task I go after is to get the bottom bracket in there. You can scooter if you'd like, but a bicycle is pretty worthless without a crank set and pedals.

Mike Varley preps every frame before it leaves his Black Mountain Cycles shop to you, so the threading on the bottom bracket was super smooth and allowed easy installation of my Wheels Manufacturing angular contact bearing bottom bracket. Then I slotted in my Shimano CX series 46T/36T crank set for 11spd.

Now normally at this point I'd set up a stem and handle bar, and then work on mounting controls. However; part of the text mentioned above made me decide not to go that way. Instead, I mounted my Spyre brakes and tested them with the Irwin Cycling Aon GX 35  carbon wheels I already had waiting on this build. I ended up having to spacer out the rear caliper a bit, but otherwise I had zero issues getting things to line up.

I tried running a few cable housings just to get a feel for how I would route things. The cable routing is really well thought out on this bike. Everything going to the rear of the bike is full run housing. The front brake, obviously being a disc, is as well. Only the front derailleur is a bottom run, exposed cable set up. That may seem weird, but here is why that is actually brilliant. The break in the housing run from the shifter goes to a traditionally mounted road bike style cable stop with a barrel adjuster. This means no oddball in-line cable adjuster is necessary and the front derailleur can be easily adjusted on the fly. Those worried about mud fouling the cable have too much time to think about things. In all my years of riding, that style of cable run has never been the reason my front derailleur did not work. Your mileage may vary......

The finished product. (Well......almost finished!)

Friday I received a set of Whisky No. 9 Carbon 24F handle bars. In that package was also a No. 7 Carbon seat post. Friday evening I spent down in the Lab putting it all together. There were some old parts from my Raleigh Tamland Two. The Ultegra levers, front and rear derailleurs, and the aforementioned calipers for the brakes. I got a new SRAM 11-36T 11 speed cassette and I used a Shimano 11 speed chain, the new Ultegra one with the quick link. (Yay!) The stem was my Redshift Sports ShockStop stem in the 90mm length. The saddle is my Brooks Cambium from the old T-6 I sold.

Tires are an old set of WTB Riddler 45mm tires that barely went on. Those Irwin rims fit tires tightly! I won't be worrying about throwing off a tire if one goes flat, and burping a tire seems very unlikely. I used an old beat up set of Shimano SPD's and added three purple Velocity Bottle Traps. I got three pink ones, but the purple looked better to my eyes.

Then it was nearly time to ride after I set up my tires tubeless with "MG's Special Sauce", (a home brew recipe- you cannot buy it from the bike shop!), and that was successful due to one product. That would be Uncle Dick's Bead Slip. No issues with getting the tires straight and even using Uncle Dick's. Note- I'm not sure where you get this stuff anymore, but if I find out I'll let ya know.

Whiskey No. 7 Carbon post

The Whisky components look great on the bike. I like the "ghost" branding and the sheen of the black is cool. The only issue with that post is that it uses a thumb wheel up under the saddle as one of the securing fasteners. It is easier to use than some I've encountered, so at least there wasn't any swearing.

The handle bar is much the same as far as looks. The shape is very similar to a Cowchipper, but different...... It's hard to describe. The flare is 24° but the reach seems less and the drop seems less. Not by much either. And this bar features flat sections to accommodate cable runs and a little wider 31.8mm center clamp section that makes mounting accessories easier.

The bar was covered in the Marque handle bar tape salvaged from the T-6 when I sold it. Then I capped off the Whiskey Components bar's ends with pink bar end caps. It all is good with the pink frame and helps tie the look together since the parts look more like an ensemble instead of a hodge podge.

There she be!

The Ride:

The Black Mountain Cycles rig is fun to ride for sure. Smooth? Oh yeah! But that may be because of the ShockStop stem and the Whiskey No. 7 post. That post has a sweet ride to it. Plus the Whisky No. 9 24F carbon bar also has a bit of give at the extensions so that when you are in the drops it feels smoother yet. Add in 45mm Riddler tires and it gets smooth fast. But that said, the frame is pretty nice in this regard. While the disc factor caused the fork to be stiffer than my rim brake BMC, it still can be seen working over the rough stuff on gravel. It isn't the "immovable object" that many carbon fiber forks are.

I stuck the bars at a height that was neither the highest I could go, nor the lowest. I'm close, but I'll be swapping around stem spacers till I get it figured out. But otherwise the position I was able to get is spot on. Not too much seat post is extended, and I don't have to get a crazy different length stem. In fact, I may go a touch longer depending upon where I end up at with bar height.

Something struck me as I was riding it. That was that I was feeling similar feelings to something I'd ridden in the past. The steel frame of the MCD felt somehow familiar. Then it hit me. The Vaya! I used to love that bike for its crazy ability to give back what you put into it, eventually. Kind of like winding up a spring and then it recoils. Anyway, the MCD felt like that, like the Vaya used to.

So, is it the uber-Vaya? Maybe. It just reminds me of that old bike. Only the Black Mountain Cycles bike has more features. More tire clearance, through axles, livelier tubing choices, a better steel fork, and smarter details. So, it is a different beast altogether.

I'll be doing some tweaking in the near future beyond the stem position. I may be switching bar tape, tweaking out the saddle position, and stuff like that. I'll also be doing a switch on the wheels to try 650B X 47mm tires. That said,  yes- I am happy. I like it, and I don't think this one will be going anywhere unless I am riding it in the near future.

Don't ask what it weighs, because I won't tell you. That isn't the point of this bike, but if you have other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

The Tire Switcheroo

You just never know what you'll find out there!

One group of tires tested, then another group comes in. Time for the ol' tire switcheroo. I seem to do this about every three months or so, I think. Maybe more often sometimes.

I just finished up on the Riddler 37mm tires. I really liked them. They are a good gravel road tire that isn't too big, but is just big enough. You can really cover a lot of different types of terrain with a 36mm-42mm tire. Well, as long as it has a good design for the tread and is made well. I think if you are looking at tires in this size range, the quality casings are a must. You are milking every bit of performance out of a tire like this, so it has to be a well made tire, or you will get short changed. The WTB Riddler 37mm tire is just such a tire. I kind of get bummed out when I have to peel off a set of tires like the Riddlers to set up anther review tire, but with the tires most companies are putting out there now, it just is a different flavor, and not a real big let down.

That said, I liked the design of the Riddlers a lot. I think the design is really a good way to tackle a gravel road tire deign. Smooth in the center to promote fast rolling and easy accelerations, and lateral knobs to allow for stability. This with a flattish profile is the winning combination, as far as I can see. I thought that this might be the case and when I rode the Challenge Gravel Grinder, I found out it really works. Peaked crown tires, or very rounded ones, are the absolute worst on gravel. They plow, have no lateral stability, and generally ride poorly on gravel.

New tires means more switching around.

Well, however that works out for me with older tires, it all gets thrown out the window when a new set shows up. Peel off. Remount. More sealant. The same ol' song and dance again. Then it is getting used to the new treads. What do they do well, what do they do poorly, and how do they ride? So much to pay attention to.

The funny thing is that tires are a really big deal, and can be one of the most controversial components that one uses on a bicycle. I have used so many different tires on the Black Mountain Cycles Cross bike, (Orange Crush), that I can tell you that tires can make or break a bike. I've used absolutely horrible tires on that bike, (Vee Rubber models of some sort), which made the bike terrifying to ride, and have used tires which made the bike a dream to ride. Same bike, different tires, way different results.

So, yeah.......tires are a really big deal. 

That is why I like trying out different tires, why I like thinking about them, and it is one of the reasons I like riding bicycles. Tires can really affect your enjoyment of bikes. Not to mention tire pressures, which is an entirely different subject and deserves its own post. You can ruin good tires with wrong air pressures. That's all I'll say about that right now.

So, anyway, I am not complaining at all when I have to do the ol' tire switcheroo. It's just a part of what I do and I find it pretty interesting. 

The Tire Switcheroo

You just never know what you'll find out there!

One group of tires tested, then another group comes in. Time for the ol' tire switcheroo. I seem to do this about every three months or so, I think. Maybe more often sometimes.

I just finished up on the Riddler 37mm tires. I really liked them. They are a good gravel road tire that isn't too big, but is just big enough. You can really cover a lot of different types of terrain with a 36mm-42mm tire. Well, as long as it has a good design for the tread and is made well. I think if you are looking at tires in this size range, the quality casings are a must. You are milking every bit of performance out of a tire like this, so it has to be a well made tire, or you will get short changed. The WTB Riddler 37mm tire is just such a tire. I kind of get bummed out when I have to peel off a set of tires like the Riddlers to set up anther review tire, but with the tires most companies are putting out there now, it just is a different flavor, and not a real big let down.

That said, I liked the design of the Riddlers a lot. I think the design is really a good way to tackle a gravel road tire deign. Smooth in the center to promote fast rolling and easy accelerations, and lateral knobs to allow for stability. This with a flattish profile is the winning combination, as far as I can see. I thought that this might be the case and when I rode the Challenge Gravel Grinder, I found out it really works. Peaked crown tires, or very rounded ones, are the absolute worst on gravel. They plow, have no lateral stability, and generally ride poorly on gravel.

New tires means more switching around.

Well, however that works out for me with older tires, it all gets thrown out the window when a new set shows up. Peel off. Remount. More sealant. The same ol' song and dance again. Then it is getting used to the new treads. What do they do well, what do they do poorly, and how do they ride? So much to pay attention to.

The funny thing is that tires are a really big deal, and can be one of the most controversial components that one uses on a bicycle. I have used so many different tires on the Black Mountain Cycles Cross bike, (Orange Crush), that I can tell you that tires can make or break a bike. I've used absolutely horrible tires on that bike, (Vee Rubber models of some sort), which made the bike terrifying to ride, and have used tires which made the bike a dream to ride. Same bike, different tires, way different results.

So, yeah.......tires are a really big deal. 

That is why I like trying out different tires, why I like thinking about them, and it is one of the reasons I like riding bicycles. Tires can really affect your enjoyment of bikes. Not to mention tire pressures, which is an entirely different subject and deserves its own post. You can ruin good tires with wrong air pressures. That's all I'll say about that right now.

So, anyway, I am not complaining at all when I have to do the ol' tire switcheroo. It's just a part of what I do and I find it pretty interesting. 

Riddler Riding

The WTB Riddler 37 on a Velocity A23

Okay, so here we go with the WTB Riddler tires. I mentioned these last Friday and said I was going to try them on my Velocity A23 rims, which I have done. You can read all the details on that HERE.

I am going to try to stay away from repeating myself between the RidingGravel.com stuff and here, so this post should have some different information than that linked one does. Okay, so as far as this tire goes, here are some thoughts I have.

It has the oddity of being what size WTB says it is. Tire companies have, for years now, said such-and-such a tire is "x" inches wide and you could easily win bets by saying that the tire would not be that width, but skinnier. Almost every single time, this was the case. However; now it seems that, for whatever reasons, tires are more than likely going to actually be the size printed on the sidewalls, or be bigger than stated width. The Gravel King 40's are an example where I don't think anyone has measured one of those tires at 40mm. It is always reported to be wider than that.

Weird. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that things have switched around in that way concerning tires. It makes you feel like you got more for your hard earned dollars when your 40mm tire turns out to be more like a 42mm tire. That said, your now 42mm tire may not fit the bike you had intended it for. That's the flip side of this tire deal, and it can be a bummer. But just know that as far as the gravel bike tire class widths go, you should be getting what you paid for, and you'd better have the room for that tire in your bike!

The Riddler 37 is just such a tire. 37.2mm average width across both tires I measured, and that is on a "roadie width" A23 rim. I really feel the 36-37mm width tires are the sweet spot for most gravel. Not too heavy, but just wide enough to give you most of what a heavier 40mm tire would. Not as skinny and as low volume as a 33-35mm tire either, which you are more likely to get a harsher ride out of because you can't go so low on the pressures. Plus at that width, around here, tires start "hunting lines", cutting into and not rolling over gravel, and that's wasting energy.

More soon.....

Riddler Riding

The WTB Riddler 37 on a Velocity A23

Okay, so here we go with the WTB Riddler tires. I mentioned these last Friday and said I was going to try them on my Velocity A23 rims, which I have done. You can read all the details on that HERE.

I am going to try to stay away from repeating myself between the RidingGravel.com stuff and here, so this post should have some different information than that linked one does. Okay, so as far as this tire goes, here are some thoughts I have.

It has the oddity of being what size WTB says it is. Tire companies have, for years now, said such-and-such a tire is "x" inches wide and you could easily win bets by saying that the tire would not be that width, but skinnier. Almost every single time, this was the case. However; now it seems that, for whatever reasons, tires are more than likely going to actually be the size printed on the sidewalls, or be bigger than stated width. The Gravel King 40's are an example where I don't think anyone has measured one of those tires at 40mm. It is always reported to be wider than that.

Weird. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that things have switched around in that way concerning tires. It makes you feel like you got more for your hard earned dollars when your 40mm tire turns out to be more like a 42mm tire. That said, your now 42mm tire may not fit the bike you had intended it for. That's the flip side of this tire deal, and it can be a bummer. But just know that as far as the gravel bike tire class widths go, you should be getting what you paid for, and you'd better have the room for that tire in your bike!

The Riddler 37 is just such a tire. 37.2mm average width across both tires I measured, and that is on a "roadie width" A23 rim. I really feel the 36-37mm width tires are the sweet spot for most gravel. Not too heavy, but just wide enough to give you most of what a heavier 40mm tire would. Not as skinny and as low volume as a 33-35mm tire either, which you are more likely to get a harsher ride out of because you can't go so low on the pressures. Plus at that width, around here, tires start "hunting lines", cutting into and not rolling over gravel, and that's wasting energy.

More soon.....

Clean The Machine

Cleaned up and ready for its close up, Mr DeMille!

I got the WTB Riddler 37's the other day, and I purposed to mount those on the Black Mountain Cycles rig using the Velocity USA A23 wheel set I have. No big deal, right? Just get it done. Wealth of bikes and first world problems aside, I had to do some cleaning of the beast, because I had "ridden it hard and put it away wet" one too many times. The old steed was in desperate need of a good, thorough cleaning.

The bike was last extensively used during the Winter and early Spring testing of three or four different tires. That meant I had done some muddy rides. I had to practically do an archeological dig to uncover the bottom bracket area! Besides that, there had been contact with oil, road spray, and whatever else one might find on city streets, so there was quite a lot of "elbow grease" applied while the cleanup continued through the mid-afternoon yesterday.

The old Bontrager bar tape was also pretty grungy, so I had this Origin 8 bar tape to try out, which is pretty close to "Safety Green". It's really comfortable and grippy, but I'll have to see how it holds up. The "Hi-Viz' thing is not really me, but hey...... I was given the stuff to try out, so I ain't complainin'! I'm sure after a few sweaty, dusty gravel rides it will tone down a bit. After that was put on, I was almost done. Two hours later! I still have to clean up the drive train some more and perhaps put on a new chain.

Then it will be time to give these Riddler treads a go. Stay tuned.......

Clean The Machine

Cleaned up and ready for its close up, Mr DeMille!

I got the WTB Riddler 37's the other day, and I purposed to mount those on the Black Mountain Cycles rig using the Velocity USA A23 wheel set I have. No big deal, right? Just get it done. Wealth of bikes and first world problems aside, I had to do some cleaning of the beast, because I had "ridden it hard and put it away wet" one too many times. The old steed was in desperate need of a good, thorough cleaning.

The bike was last extensively used during the Winter and early Spring testing of three or four different tires. That meant I had done some muddy rides. I had to practically do an archeological dig to uncover the bottom bracket area! Besides that, there had been contact with oil, road spray, and whatever else one might find on city streets, so there was quite a lot of "elbow grease" applied while the cleanup continued through the mid-afternoon yesterday.

The old Bontrager bar tape was also pretty grungy, so I had this Origin 8 bar tape to try out, which is pretty close to "Safety Green". It's really comfortable and grippy, but I'll have to see how it holds up. The "Hi-Viz' thing is not really me, but hey...... I was given the stuff to try out, so I ain't complainin'! I'm sure after a few sweaty, dusty gravel rides it will tone down a bit. After that was put on, I was almost done. Two hours later! I still have to clean up the drive train some more and perhaps put on a new chain.

Then it will be time to give these Riddler treads a go. Stay tuned.......

Friday News And Views

And the hits just keep on coming....

More WTB:

As if the Horizon 650B tires weren't enough, and as if the Nano 40TCS tires weren't good enough, now WTB has made another tire in the Riddler which gravel road enthusiasts can look forward to trying out. Of course, this was the tire WTB brought two samples of to Trans Iowa v12 and gave away to the Womens Open winner, Sarah Cooper. There will be a 45mm version coming in August, but for now, these  37's are here and will get tested on RidingGravel.com.

I saw these tires only briefly at T.I.v12, and of course, I had other things on my mind that weekend, so I didn't really get a good look at them back then. However; I have obviously taken a closer look now, and I think these will make some good gravel going treads, if I am right about them. First, they have a decent weight, at about 460gm/470gm for each tire. Secondly, the tread pattern is minimal in the center and the edge knobs look decent and I feel that is the way a gravel tire should be. If the edge knobs give lateral stability, and the width is true to spec, then I think these will be winners.

They are a TCS tire, so coupled with a WTB TCS rim, or a Velocity rim, they should pan out to be something that works really well tubeless. That's based upon my experiences with the TCS Nano 40. In fact, I will likely start out these tires with my A-23 wheels and stick them on my trusty Black Mountain Cycles Orange Crush. Later on I think I'll try them on the PWGW wheel set and stick those on the T-6 Standard Rando. Anyway, I am expecting great things from these tires since they are from WTB, and the Nano 40 and, so far, the Horizon 47's have been very impressive tires. I'll be very disappointed if these tires don't at least come out as well as the Nano 40 has.

Wish I was here.....but then again, maybe I don't. Image by Wally Kilburg

 Odin's Revenge

This weekend is Odin's Revenge, a race that I have participated in several times now. I've never been able to pull off a finish there. There are many reasons for that, one of the biggest being that it is an insanely difficult course and usually the event is run when it is very hot. I don't do well when those two factors come together.

Still, it is a "vision quest", a "sweat lodge", or maybe it is a Don Quixote kind of a deal for me. Perhaps it is all of that. I love the event, I really enjoy the people that put it on and how they do things, and I absolutely love the area. I wanted to go this year, and I fully intended to until just after the DK200 trip when I found out that my sister had planned a little something and it requires my attendance, so I had to back out. Honestly, it bums me out that I am not on the road with my friend Tony, headed west to the hills and canyons of West Central Nebraska.

Then again, I am also kind of glad I am not going. It's going to be brutally hot there this year. I'd have a really rough go of it, I am sure. Still........ I'll miss the deal. But the reason I am staying is undeniably a good reason. Can't argue that. More on that after the weekend.......

Tour Divide Track Leader board as of 6/23 @ 10:27pm

Tour Divide:

Looks like sometime today we will have a Tour Divide winner, and it will be in under two weeks time.

That's pretty amazing.

I think the pointy end of this event has been pretty typical of years past, only, ya know.......faster. Anyway, Trans Iowa veteran Chris Plesko looks to nab second and set a new single speed record in the process. A record he currently holds, by the way. Amazing X 2!

Okay, I'm gonna warn y'all.....this is going into retrogrouch territory, probably. But......this TD is weird. Facebook updates? It used to be that you had to hang on waiting for call ins on the TD site, or on wherever that was being hosted, if you got anything but the ubiquitous blue dot. Google Earth lets you look right at the trail, the buildings they are staying in, and it leaves everything void of any imagination or wonder out here as a follower. I don't know, but I bet someone is live broadcasting their ride. Don't tell me if they are, please. But I bet someone is. Is that wrong? I don't know that it is, but for me, it's weird. 

Am I guilty of doing social media too much? Yes. I probably am. However; I always thought the spirit of the TD was that you dropped off the face of the (Google) Earth and went on your own vision quest, with little to no (outside of locals) contact with the outside world. I thought it was a solitary pursuit and that there was zero broadcasting of your whereabouts to get the maximum out of doing this route. Sure, we might have gotten the occasional "he's made it this far" update in the past, but not a blow-by-blow accounting of what you've done for the day, every day you are on the route.

A couple of years ago, a local rider did the TD and we couldn't wait till he got back so he could tell us the stories. Heck.....now we won't have to sit around and listen to stories. Some of these folks have told their story while it happened. I don't know.....it's just weird to me. It takes a certain something out of it that, well.......it's hard to explain it right now for me. It just doesn't feel right.

So, like I said. I'm probably being old and in the way. Carry on.........

Hey, I want to wish all those riding and running the Odin's Revenge a great, safe, fun weekend. Everyone else- Have a fun, safe, enjoyable weekend too, and have a cycling adventure, why don'tcha?

Friday News And Views

And the hits just keep on coming....

More WTB:

As if the Horizon 650B tires weren't enough, and as if the Nano 40TCS tires weren't good enough, now WTB has made another tire in the Riddler which gravel road enthusiasts can look forward to trying out. Of course, this was the tire WTB brought two samples of to Trans Iowa v12 and gave away to the Womens Open winner, Sarah Cooper. There will be a 45mm version coming in August, but for now, these  37's are here and will get tested on RidingGravel.com.

I saw these tires only briefly at T.I.v12, and of course, I had other things on my mind that weekend, so I didn't really get a good look at them back then. However; I have obviously taken a closer look now, and I think these will make some good gravel going treads, if I am right about them. First, they have a decent weight, at about 460gm/470gm for each tire. Secondly, the tread pattern is minimal in the center and the edge knobs look decent and I feel that is the way a gravel tire should be. If the edge knobs give lateral stability, and the width is true to spec, then I think these will be winners.

They are a TCS tire, so coupled with a WTB TCS rim, or a Velocity rim, they should pan out to be something that works really well tubeless. That's based upon my experiences with the TCS Nano 40. In fact, I will likely start out these tires with my A-23 wheels and stick them on my trusty Black Mountain Cycles Orange Crush. Later on I think I'll try them on the PWGW wheel set and stick those on the T-6 Standard Rando. Anyway, I am expecting great things from these tires since they are from WTB, and the Nano 40 and, so far, the Horizon 47's have been very impressive tires. I'll be very disappointed if these tires don't at least come out as well as the Nano 40 has.

Wish I was here.....but then again, maybe I don't. Image by Wally Kilburg

 Odin's Revenge

This weekend is Odin's Revenge, a race that I have participated in several times now. I've never been able to pull off a finish there. There are many reasons for that, one of the biggest being that it is an insanely difficult course and usually the event is run when it is very hot. I don't do well when those two factors come together.

Still, it is a "vision quest", a "sweat lodge", or maybe it is a Don Quixote kind of a deal for me. Perhaps it is all of that. I love the event, I really enjoy the people that put it on and how they do things, and I absolutely love the area. I wanted to go this year, and I fully intended to until just after the DK200 trip when I found out that my sister had planned a little something and it requires my attendance, so I had to back out. Honestly, it bums me out that I am not on the road with my friend Tony, headed west to the hills and canyons of West Central Nebraska.

Then again, I am also kind of glad I am not going. It's going to be brutally hot there this year. I'd have a really rough go of it, I am sure. Still........ I'll miss the deal. But the reason I am staying is undeniably a good reason. Can't argue that. More on that after the weekend.......

Tour Divide Track Leader board as of 6/23 @ 10:27pm

Tour Divide:

Looks like sometime today we will have a Tour Divide winner, and it will be in under two weeks time.

That's pretty amazing.

I think the pointy end of this event has been pretty typical of years past, only, ya know.......faster. Anyway, Trans Iowa veteran Chris Plesko looks to nab second and set a new single speed record in the process. A record he currently holds, by the way. Amazing X 2!

Okay, I'm gonna warn y'all.....this is going into retrogrouch territory, probably. But......this TD is weird. Facebook updates? It used to be that you had to hang on waiting for call ins on the TD site, or on wherever that was being hosted, if you got anything but the ubiquitous blue dot. Google Earth lets you look right at the trail, the buildings they are staying in, and it leaves everything void of any imagination or wonder out here as a follower. I don't know, but I bet someone is live broadcasting their ride. Don't tell me if they are, please. But I bet someone is. Is that wrong? I don't know that it is, but for me, it's weird. 

Am I guilty of doing social media too much? Yes. I probably am. However; I always thought the spirit of the TD was that you dropped off the face of the (Google) Earth and went on your own vision quest, with little to no (outside of locals) contact with the outside world. I thought it was a solitary pursuit and that there was zero broadcasting of your whereabouts to get the maximum out of doing this route. Sure, we might have gotten the occasional "he's made it this far" update in the past, but not a blow-by-blow accounting of what you've done for the day, every day you are on the route.

A couple of years ago, a local rider did the TD and we couldn't wait till he got back so he could tell us the stories. Heck.....now we won't have to sit around and listen to stories. Some of these folks have told their story while it happened. I don't know.....it's just weird to me. It takes a certain something out of it that, well.......it's hard to explain it right now for me. It just doesn't feel right.

So, like I said. I'm probably being old and in the way. Carry on.........

Hey, I want to wish all those riding and running the Odin's Revenge a great, safe, fun weekend. Everyone else- Have a fun, safe, enjoyable weekend too, and have a cycling adventure, why don'tcha?

Friday News And Views

Stick 'em up!

Riding Gravel News:

There are a couple of things to chat about here regarding the site I am partnered in with Ben Welnak, better known for his Mountain Bike Radio podcasts. Of course, that site is RidingGravel.com. Ben is definitely better at the promoting thing than I am. He's got t-shirts and stickers, and who knows what all going on for his various ventures. So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that he's been tweaking the look of the site, adding an "About" page and even something for anyone wanting to advertise. Ben is the man when it comes to all of that. Heck, all I know about is rocks, rock and roll, and bicycles. I'd never be able to do all of what Ben does so well.

So, anyway.......Ben came up with a plan to revamp the look of the logo and he sent me about two dozen renderings and we finally came up with the new logo, as seen on the stickers in the image here. Yep.....there is a heck of a lot of stickers there! If you want some, give me a holler and I'll work out how to get you some.

Beyond stickers and web design, we are active in the gravel road community putting on events, and now......helping support them with real labor!  Yep. I'll be working Checkpoint #3 with Ben and a couple of others for this weekend's running of the Almanzo 100. I've actually never been to this seminal gravel road event, so it is about time I did that, yes? Yes, I believe so, and helping to cheer on the riders is a good way for me to do that, I think. Oh......and yes- we will have stickers to hand out. Be nice! I'm planning on having my son be there and I think I will put him in charge of those. We will see..... Anyway, this all happened at the last minute when another entity pulled the plug on helping so Ben decided we'd step in and fill that void. Hopefully we can pull it together and give a good showing.

Rubber godz

The Religion of Rubber:

I don't think anything else about bicycles engenders more passionate feelings than tires. Just those rubber skins we either put a tube into or use sealant with. That one component that touches the ground, goes round and round, and gives us feedback from the surfaces we ride on. Tires. Those odd, mostly black, sometimes knobbly bits of circular goodness. They are just tires. 

But with the near zealous, religious fervor these mere things engender, you'd think that people were talking about gods. It's weird. There is no doubt that, more than anything else I write about, tires generate the most interest than anything else. Then it is maybe geometry of bikes, and finally, Trans Iowa.  I could probably write about new tires for months and no one would notice I wasn't writing anything else. Tires.......yeah. It's just really a weird thing.

So, I will be writing more about tires, real soon, and that shouldn't be a surprise at all. I have the Panaracer Gravel King 40's to wrap up, but I will say those are some very nice tires. Then it's on to a couple of unknowns. One I am doing some consulting on, so I cannot talk about that, but the other is coming and it is something brand new. New tires from a new brand. I'm sure these will raise some passionate feelings both good and bad. You know, tires always seem to do that. In the future I'll be looking at those WTB Riddler tires too. The ones we gave away a couple pair of at Trans Iowa. They looked pretty interesting.

Sheesh! It wasn't too long ago that every gravel road rider worth his or her salt ran Schwalbe Marathon series tires and that was your only/best choice. Maybe things were simpler and easier back then. I know that there was a lot less chatter about tires for gravel road riding!

Okay, that's a wrap on this week. Maybe I'll see ya at Almanzo, or if not, go have some good bicycling adventure!

Friday News And Views

Stick 'em up!

Riding Gravel News:

There are a couple of things to chat about here regarding the site I am partnered in with Ben Welnak, better known for his Mountain Bike Radio podcasts. Of course, that site is RidingGravel.com. Ben is definitely better at the promoting thing than I am. He's got t-shirts and stickers, and who knows what all going on for his various ventures. So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that he's been tweaking the look of the site, adding an "About" page and even something for anyone wanting to advertise. Ben is the man when it comes to all of that. Heck, all I know about is rocks, rock and roll, and bicycles. I'd never be able to do all of what Ben does so well.

So, anyway.......Ben came up with a plan to revamp the look of the logo and he sent me about two dozen renderings and we finally came up with the new logo, as seen on the stickers in the image here. Yep.....there is a heck of a lot of stickers there! If you want some, give me a holler and I'll work out how to get you some.

Beyond stickers and web design, we are active in the gravel road community putting on events, and now......helping support them with real labor!  Yep. I'll be working Checkpoint #3 with Ben and a couple of others for this weekend's running of the Almanzo 100. I've actually never been to this seminal gravel road event, so it is about time I did that, yes? Yes, I believe so, and helping to cheer on the riders is a good way for me to do that, I think. Oh......and yes- we will have stickers to hand out. Be nice! I'm planning on having my son be there and I think I will put him in charge of those. We will see..... Anyway, this all happened at the last minute when another entity pulled the plug on helping so Ben decided we'd step in and fill that void. Hopefully we can pull it together and give a good showing.

Rubber godz

The Religion of Rubber:

I don't think anything else about bicycles engenders more passionate feelings than tires. Just those rubber skins we either put a tube into or use sealant with. That one component that touches the ground, goes round and round, and gives us feedback from the surfaces we ride on. Tires. Those odd, mostly black, sometimes knobbly bits of circular goodness. They are just tires. 

But with the near zealous, religious fervor these mere things engender, you'd think that people were talking about gods. It's weird. There is no doubt that, more than anything else I write about, tires generate the most interest than anything else. Then it is maybe geometry of bikes, and finally, Trans Iowa.  I could probably write about new tires for months and no one would notice I wasn't writing anything else. Tires.......yeah. It's just really a weird thing.

So, I will be writing more about tires, real soon, and that shouldn't be a surprise at all. I have the Panaracer Gravel King 40's to wrap up, but I will say those are some very nice tires. Then it's on to a couple of unknowns. One I am doing some consulting on, so I cannot talk about that, but the other is coming and it is something brand new. New tires from a new brand. I'm sure these will raise some passionate feelings both good and bad. You know, tires always seem to do that. In the future I'll be looking at those WTB Riddler tires too. The ones we gave away a couple pair of at Trans Iowa. They looked pretty interesting.

Sheesh! It wasn't too long ago that every gravel road rider worth his or her salt ran Schwalbe Marathon series tires and that was your only/best choice. Maybe things were simpler and easier back then. I know that there was a lot less chatter about tires for gravel road riding!

Okay, that's a wrap on this week. Maybe I'll see ya at Almanzo, or if not, go have some good bicycling adventure!